What they're asking for isn't clear, exactly. Is this yet another misguided anti-piracy piece of crap that does nothing to solve the problem of people who wouldn't buy CD's or see movies anyway while turning a blind eye to physical format bootleggers?

Alls I know is, I just take this stuff with a grain of salt any more... I mean, how many times has the government threaten to rid of us the internet? Better yet, how many times have has the government threaten to rid of us in the internet THIS YEAR ALONE?

It's not really the government, it's companies that buy representation and lobbyists that want the government to step in and do stuff for them. Which is such a laugh when you think about it. We have these Grover Norquest jerks come in and tell the government hands off big business when the government wants to raise their taxes so they actually pay taxes and regulate them when they're too busy selling e-coli tainted lead paint, but when they stand to lose any sort of money it's always "AAAHHH! Big government! Come and save us! We can't function without you!"

I still wonder if that's the case. I just hope it isn't as pointless as SOPA/PIPA was... but then again, I'm pretty sure we're in the closing days of the Wild West part of the Internet. You know, before all the corporations take over an make it suck like everything else.

Still, per every thousand people that bought a ticket to Avengers, there's probably less than one person that found a crappy video capture and downloaded it. The industry is still making money no matter what. "Stealing" is still "Stealing" but it's not like it's destroyed the film industry singlehandedly. This is the same hysteria that almost lost us the VCR!

I still wonder if that's the case. I just hope it isn't as pointless as SOPA/PIPA was... but then again, I'm pretty sure we're in the closing days of the Wild West part of the Internet. You know, before all the corporations take over an make it suck like everything else.

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We've already lost a bit of the Wild West when we ignore all the ways Google manipulates the way we receive information.

If anything, more file sharing sites might go down, but I'm not going to get all upset until something actually happens

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That's a point. I mean, look at all that's happened this year alone: the government completely shut down MegaUpload (and it's spinoff sites like MegaVideo), and Google alone cracked down on MediaConverter, Zamzar, clipconverter, among others.

Ya know, you can shut down just about all the video sites out there BUT there will STILL be people that'll skirt the law. You'll NEVER GET RID OF ALL OF EM! Besides, if you shut down the internet, you'll pretty much shut down society. You realize all the stuff people do on the internet now-in-days?

I blame jerks that put up full movies that are in theaters at the time. They wind up going after people who download songs that are completely too obscure and out of print and unavailable in their country because they fail to go after jerkwads that put up The Avengers shot from a theater.

Of course, I'm sure there were a LOT of pirated copies of the Avengers on the internet... didn't exactly stop the film from being the third highest grossing film of all time.

The thing is, this is nothing new. IPs have been cracking down on illegal downloading for a while. I know a few people have been charged with illegal downloading on campus (we get occasional emails about illegal downloading on campus ).

The penalty system is new, but if you actually read the article, it still only applies if the company who owns the copyrights chooses to go after you. Its not saying if you download one thing you automatically get a warning.

It's hard to say if this means they will be harder with the monitoring...honestly, I'm not entirely sure how a major company can track individual downloads of everyone on the internet, but I guess there's a way *shrugs*

Actually... it does. It's the same reason why Disney goes after Day Care centers for painting Mickey Mouse, yet completely ignores the lead paint covered bootlegged Incredibles toys, Chicken little "Sea Life" stickers, and Pooh plush made from poo fabric. One's just easier to deal with. Pirate Bay, you attack it, it manages to hide itself or attack back. It's much bigger than you'd think. Not to mention Youtube, unlike PB, is a legitimate company. If copyright is broken through them, they stand to lose money if they're sued. I'm sure Pirates bay would throw a couple sacrificial lambs at the lawyers and just move on to something else.

Doesn't seem like it could go anywhere. Grover Norquest is, shockingly, against this sort of regulation, and he usually gets what he wants. It's the one decent and human thing about that spoiled rich little snotball.